This article will focus on the seventh Florida-Friendly Landscaping principle, recycle your yard waste. Incorporating this principle in your gardening efforts will provide many benefits. Recycling yard debris will increase soil organic matter, improve the soil’s nutrient and water-holding capacity, provide food for soil microbes, protect the soil, and eliminate the effort needed to drag the “yard waste” container to the curb.
It is common to see yard waste containers packed to the brim and sitting by the curb, waiting for collection. All pruning material, raked leaves, and grass clippings can be used throughout the yard to enrich the soil. Here are some activities to add to your gardening to-do list.
Design a landscape that works for you
If you accept it, the challenge is to see how much yard debris you can keep on your property. Your efforts will help raise the organic matter level in your soil, and as it increases, so will the soil’s water- and nutrient-holding capacity! After all, why drag the yard debris to the curb just to drive to the garden center later to buy bags of compost?
Sally Scalera is an urban horticulture agent and master gardener coordinator for the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agriculture Science.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Recycle your yard waste and improve garden soil with these tips
Reporting by Sally Scalera, For FLORIDA TODAY / Florida Today
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